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I think the point here is that the media has failed in its responsibility to inform. If we knew, they knew, and the reason the public didn't know is because the

I think the point here is that the media has failed in its responsibility to inform. If we knew, they knew, and the reason the public didn't know is because they media didn't turn this into prime time news, the way the Cambridge Analytica story has been positioned. That matters.

untog 9y ago
Did the media know? The attention being given to the Cambridge Analytica story by the media suggests that this is a new finding to them. I think one of the societal problems we have right now is an overwhelming lack of tech literacy. It affects the media but also (and more importantly) government. People simply don't understand this stuff, and the problem isn't going to go away, because if you do have tech knowledge you can make far more money as a developer than you can as a journalist or politician.
- fareesh 9y ago
  The media most certainly knew that Facebook data was being used for political campaigning. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-digital-data-machine-facebook-election https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-digital-... From the article: > Barack Obama's re-election team are building a vast digital data operation that for the first time combines a unified database on millions of Americans with the power of Facebook to target individual voters to a degree never achieved before. Also > Consciously or otherwise, the individual volunteer will be injecting all the information they store publicly on their Facebook page – home location, date of birth, interests and, crucially, network of friends – directly into the central Obama database. > "If you log in with Facebook, now the campaign has connected you with all your relationships," a digital campaign organiser who has worked on behalf of Obama says.
- pbalau 9y ago
  This attention is too close after the moment when fb decided to promote your friends posts instead of media posts. Media knew about this, reported on it at the time, but since they were making money, they didn't give a shit. Now, since fb switched the news feed algorithm, they are not making that much money anymore and are using whatever means they have to "fix" this. This is not about media caring about the general population, this is about media wanting revenge.
jlarocco 9y ago
In fact, the media has a direct incentive NOT to inform people about this because they often use Facebook and Google advertising. That's less true for the old school media companies, but most new media companies are very tied to advertising networks for their revenue.
InternetUser 9y ago
How many people, let's say specifically 18-29-year-old in America, keep up on national and/or world news every day? Consider that just about 100M of 236M eligible voters did NOT bother to vote [0][1]; that is 42% of the eligible electorate who either didn't care at all, or figured that Trump and Hillary were the same, or that it didn't matter to their own lives, or that elections are a sham, or that their own district or state would go a certain way no matter what. But from my own experience, the first of those reasons is the most common; anyone I know who doesn't care about political news (even while they may avidly follow sports news or entertainment news or human-interest news about the latest viral YouTube video) responds to me bringing up politics, whether face-to-face or online, with a comment like "Who cares." [0] Washington Post: About 100 million people couldn’t be bothered to vote this year https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/12/about-100-million-people-couldnt-be-bothered-to-vote-this-year/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/12/about... [1] A reported 137,100,229 people voted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016#Results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...

untog 9y ago

Did the media know? The attention being given to the Cambridge Analytica story by the media suggests that this is a new finding to them. I think one of the societal problems we have right now is an overwhelming lack of tech literacy. It affects the media but also (and more importantly) government. People simply don't understand this stuff, and the problem isn't going to go away, because if you do have tech knowledge you can make far more money as a developer than you can as a journalist or politician.

fareesh 9y ago
The media most certainly knew that Facebook data was being used for political campaigning. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-digital-data-machine-facebook-election https://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/feb/17/obama-digital-... From the article: > Barack Obama's re-election team are building a vast digital data operation that for the first time combines a unified database on millions of Americans with the power of Facebook to target individual voters to a degree never achieved before. Also > Consciously or otherwise, the individual volunteer will be injecting all the information they store publicly on their Facebook page – home location, date of birth, interests and, crucially, network of friends – directly into the central Obama database. > "If you log in with Facebook, now the campaign has connected you with all your relationships," a digital campaign organiser who has worked on behalf of Obama says.
pbalau 9y ago
This attention is too close after the moment when fb decided to promote your friends posts instead of media posts. Media knew about this, reported on it at the time, but since they were making money, they didn't give a shit. Now, since fb switched the news feed algorithm, they are not making that much money anymore and are using whatever means they have to "fix" this. This is not about media caring about the general population, this is about media wanting revenge.

jlarocco 9y ago

In fact, the media has a direct incentive NOT to inform people about this because they often use Facebook and Google advertising. That's less true for the old school media companies, but most new media companies are very tied to advertising networks for their revenue.

InternetUser 9y ago

How many people, let's say specifically 18-29-year-old in America, keep up on national and/or world news every day? Consider that just about 100M of 236M eligible voters did NOT bother to vote [0][1]; that is 42% of the eligible electorate who either didn't care at all, or figured that Trump and Hillary were the same, or that it didn't matter to their own lives, or that elections are a sham, or that their own district or state would go a certain way no matter what. But from my own experience, the first of those reasons is the most common; anyone I know who doesn't care about political news (even while they may avidly follow sports news or entertainment news or human-interest news about the latest viral YouTube video) responds to me bringing up politics, whether face-to-face or online, with a comment like "Who cares." [0] Washington Post: About 100 million people couldn’t be bothered to vote this year https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/12/about-100-million-people-couldnt-be-bothered-to-vote-this-year/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/12/about... [1] A reported 137,100,229 people voted: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2016#Results https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_ele...